Newsday reports that Nate Robinson will be out 10-14 days, which means he could miss the games against the Hornets, Pacers, Cavaliers, Bucks and Jazz in addition to the Hornets game tonight. The good news is that we get to test my theory about how important Nate is to the Knicks. Certainly, Gallinari’s time will increase and Hughes may solidify his role in the rotation or just implode as I expect. Nate is a former football player so I expect him to be back earlier (no medical training, I just play like it on the Internet) to faceJamal Crawfordwho is doing well with playoff bound Atlanta (2-1). He is only shooting 10% (1-10) from the tre arc, but he is a key reserve and last night scored 17 points in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Speaking of former Knicks doing well. You need to check out the starting center for the Suns. Gallinari does not have a better shooting percentage than this former Knick. Who is it?Channing Frye.Frye is looking very good in the so-called D’Antoni system.Last night as the starting center,Frye scored 25 points in 26 minutes while hitting 6-10 tres in a victory over the Timberwolves. Amazingly, Frye is averaging 19.7 points in 32 minutes off of 58% shooting with 65% from the arc. Both percentages are far above his career averages, but he has been working on that tre and we always knew he already had a sweet shot. His rebounding (5.7 per game) and blocks (0.7 per game) still suck but he is playing in the stat inflationary system that has his Suns at 3-0 to start the season.

The NBA fined Harrington $25,000 for stating that the call against him which led to the winning freebies in the Charlotte loss were the result of refs losing interest in the game. He said “I guess people was ready to go home.” I always wonder, how acting like the Gestapo protects the NBA’s image. Their effort to silence emotional comments and stifle dissent about calls reeks and simply places more attention on refs poor calls. Although admittedly it probably does have a strong deterrent effect, since bad calls are part of the NBA game. Anyway, they sure know how to dip into a player’s pocket.